Engagement ring falls from hot air balloon

BURTON, Ohio - James Ng was all set to "pop the question" on a surprise hot air balloon ride with his fiancee, until the symbol of their love fell 500 feet into the woods below.

The 26-year-old pastor of a small Geauga County church had it all planned. He would hide the one-carat diamond engagement ring in a box and put the box in his camera case. Then, high above West Branch State Park, it happened.

"I just watched it tumble and it hit a tree and spun around and the stuff fluttered out of it," recalled Ng. "And I just put my head down on the side of the balloon and I was just - I just couldn't believe I'd just done that."

The camera case with the box containing the ring had fallen from Ng's hands, disappeared into the trees below, and Ng's plans were shattered.

"My first thought was just don't tell her what fell out of the balloon, and buy another ring, which it took me forever to afford the one I had," Ng confided. But fiancee Sonya Bostic had caught on.

"When the bag dropped and he reacted the way he did, that's when I knew," Bostic revealed. "Wait a second! My ring's in there!" she cried out at the time.

Ng dropped to one knee, proposed anyway without the ring, and the newly engaged couple continued the balloon ride. But Ng's ingenuity immediately took over.

"I got up and I was like, what river did we just pass? Where was that? I started trying to get a feel for where we were."

And as soon as they hit the ground, the quick-thinking pastor started his search plans. He googled maps of the area, called the balloon company, plotted possible flight paths, and marked off search grids.

"I'd been raising that money for the ring for a year. And it was, you know, kind of important," he confessed.

In the meantime, the engaged couple went to WalMart and bought a $9 replacement ring.

"But before we bought the ring at WalMart, I had put a twist tie on Sonya's finger," Ng told WKYC. "I mean, we were engaged."

And then seven days into the search, which covered a number of square miles of woods, brush and bramble, there was the camera bag. Ng and a friend helping him search approached with excitement.

"We ran up to it and it was the bag, and we're like yes!" Ng gleefully remembers the moment. "And I took caution tape out of my back pocket and tied it around the tree right next to the bag."

The only item still in the bag was the little box containing the ring. Both Ng and Bostic say God gave them a miracle.

"It was amazing. I just kept looking at it," said Bostic. "It was so beautiful. It was perfect. It was everything that I wanted. And that we found it, and I never thought in a million years we'd find it. That was truly God. It really was."

And to complete the miracle, Ng chose the right moment to propose once again, this time with the ring.

"Take two," Bostic said.

"I did get back down on my knee and I offered her to put the ring on her finger," said a relieved James Ng. "And, you know, it just fit!"